Do National Security Communication Campaigns Work? Taking a Lesson from the Public Health Sector
This RAND report draws on a systematic review of 41 meta-analytic and systematic reviews of public health communication campaigns to extract lessons applicable to U.S. national security communications—including the Army psychological operations forces' inform, influence, and persuade campaigns in support of overseas contingency operations. The authors note that national security campaigns are rarely subjected to rigorous evaluation because of unstable operating environments and political sensitivities, leaving the public health literature as the closest available evidence base for understanding what makes a communication campaign actually work.